Dices does the Rolling
by maakkel
Summary: Just a D&D inspired story. I am currently just looking for feedback, and maybe a beta-reader/-editor. !-* *-ENJOY-* *-!
1. Chapter 1

"Mr. Cole!" Michael looked up from his book; his teacher was looking at him with her hands on her hips.

"Yes Mrs. Claudia?" He asked, closing the book.

"That isnt your English book, is it?" She asked with stern voice.

"No, Mrs. Claudia" Michael mumbled as he put the book back in his bag. His teacher shook her head and pointed at the blackboard "As I was saying…"

"Why can't you just stop reading these books during class?" Michael's friend, Marcus asked.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. Maybe it is because of all the adventures I had." He answered as they entered their dormitory. "That doesn't change the fact that you aren't supposed to read during class" Marcus pointed out.

"I know." Michael said as he unlocked their room. He threw his phone on the couch. "But it is so boring listening to her." Marcus nodded as he sat down in the couch. "Are you playing the game at all?" He asked.

Michael looked in the fridge while answering: "No, I don't know anyone else who plays it." He then poured himself a glass of ice tea. He could hear the television being turned on. "That's too bad." Marcus said. Michael could hear the annoying theme from Marcus' series. Suddenly that noised was mixed with the theme of another show, Marcus then began talking: "Michael Cole's phone, this is his dorm mate."

Michael turned and held out his hand to take the phone. Marcus just held his hand over the microphone area, "do you know anyone named Adrian Kay?" He asked.

Michael though for a moment, he had heard that name before. Suddenly Marcus' phone rang and he was

'forced' to hand over Michael's phone. Marcus' answered "Hey baby." Michael rolled his eyes, it was just the girlfriend.

"This is Michael." He said as he answered his own phone and entered his bedroom so they wouldn't interrupt each other. "Hello, as I told you friend, I'm Adrian Kay and I was wondering if you are the Michael Cole I'm looking for," Michael thought for a moment, and decided to wait for this Adrian to ask

"Did you go to class with two boys named Daniel and Chris?" This, Adrian, asked. Something about his voice seemed to open some memories of D&D sessions. "Yeah, I did. Why are you asking these questions?"

"For two reasons: first, because I found the numbers of 11 Michael Cole's in Seattle and second to make sure it is you who was a player in my D&D campaign." Suddenly it hit him. This stranger wasn't a stranger at all; it was the guy who had been his Dungeon Master 5 years ago. "You where the one who taught me dungeons and dragons!" Michael exclaimed, he could hear some chuckle from the other end of the line.

"I sure was. How are you? Are you still playing?" Adrian asked.

"I'm great, but unfortunately I am not playing at the moment." Michael answered. "Good to hear. I assume you are still interested in playing?" Adrian asked. Michael took a sip of his ice tea.

"Yes I am. Are you asking me to join your game?" Michael asked, full of hope. However, the answer wasn't what he was expecting.

"No, I'm not asking you to join my game." Adrian asked. Michael was suddenly a bit irritated.

"Then why the hell did you call me?" Michael said, a bit harsher than intended.

"Take it easy, I stopped being a dungeon master a few years ago. I'm asking you to join a campaign. My friend, Eric, is the dungeon master." Adrian said.

"So you are a player too?" Michael asked, remembering how much Adrian enjoyed being DM all those years ago.

"I am." He answered "So, you do still live in Seattle, right?" He then asked. "I do, I go to college here."

"College? That's good to hear, anyway, we play each Saturday, approximately 7 pm to around midnight." Michael thought for a moment, he was usually free doing Saturday at that time. "I got time for that, so do we play this week?" He asked.

"The campaign is a few months old, we are all level 6. But two of the players just left and Eric really wanted a fifth player, so I thought of you." Adrian answered.

"Okay, where do we play?" Michael asked as he took a notebook and a pen. "Usually at Eric's place, but sometimes at a café that has open 24 hours a day."

"Can I get the address, then I will be there." Michael said.

"Well, you have to roll a character first, and do you even have the books?" Adrian asked after giving Michael the address.

"I got all the books I bought while playing with you." Michael answered.

"No those books, that's the 3.5 edition, and our campaign is 4th edition." Adrian answered. "Alright, so I need to buy some books, name the most important and I will buy them." Michael replied.

"Don't do that, Eric can get them with a 20 % discount." Adrian said. "Just visit my place tonight and you can pay him, and we can roll your character."

"I'm afraid I can't tonight, I got a math assignment for tomorrow." Michael said, sad that he had to decline.

"No problem, what about tomorrow night?" Adrian asked. "Tomorrow night it is, so I need your address too." Michael said, and wrote Adrian's address down.

"Guess I see you tomorrow then?" Adrian said. "We do, bye." Michael said as he hung up. He left the room and saw Marcus sitting, and watching his show.

"That was one long phone call, who was it?" Marcus asked.

"My old dungeon master, he invited me to a game." Michael said smiling as he drank the last ice tea.

"Great. Anyway, do you think you can be out tomorrow night? Cynthia is coming." Marcus asked pleadingly. Michael rolled his eyes. "Sure, I already made plans." He replied. "Great!" Marcus exclaimed.

"Give a shout when the show is over, I want to finish the math quickly." Michael said as he turned on his computer, to find out more about this, fourth edition.

Michael walked alone down the street. It was a bit chilly to he had his scarlet jacket on. The sun was low and made the sky an orange color. A few cars passed him; it was generally a silent evening. He turned left and looked for number 28 of the apartment complex. He found it and rang the door phone for Adrian's apartment.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Michael."

"Oh hey Michael, I didn't expect you before an hour, come in." The door opened and Adrian walked up the stairs until he found Adrian standing in a doorway. He had a blue t-shirt and grey pants. He had ruffled black hair. He was quite tall, almost 2 meters.

"Long time no see, you sure have grown." Adrian said as he held out his hand for Michael to shake. "You sure added some height." Michael said as they shake hands.

"Come in" Adrian said and led Michael into the apartment. It was a small, 2 bedrooms, though one served as an office, a kitchen and a living/dining room. Most of the walls had large drawings of fantasy motives.

"Would you like something to drink? I got soda, beer and coffee." Adrian asked from the kitchen. "Just some coffee please." Michael replied as he looked a bookshelf over, it was mainly D&D books and books on different drawing/painting techniques.

"You got some nice drawings." Michael replied as they sat at the table. "Thank you" Adrian said as he took a sip of his beer.

"I got a few books you may want to look at, they contains classes, races etc." Adrian said as he picked a bunch of books from the shelf.

"Actually I already know what I want to play." Michael said.

"You didn't buy the books, did you?" Adrian asked. "No no, I just looked at the internet." Michael quickly replied.

"So what did you decide?" Adrian asked. "I was thinking about an Eladrin Swordmage." Michael replied. Adrian though for a moment, before asking: "As a damage dealer or defender?"

"Damage dealer, I think." Michael replied. Adrian nodded. "Not a bad choice."

"What do you play?" Michael asked. Adrian raised his voice as he answered: "A proud minotaur paladin of the tree father, Silvanus!" Michael chuckled a little. Suddenly the door phone rang. Adrian got up and answered it.

"Yes?" "Oh, it's you." "Yes, he is here." He pressed a button, opened the door and went back to the table.

"Who was that?" Michael asked. "You DM" Adrian simply replied as he took a blank character sheet and a pen. "Your race is in player's handbook 1 and your class is in Forgotten Realms, players guide." Adrian said as he dropped 4 six-sided dices on the table. Suddenly a stranger stood in the middle of a room.

He walked over and held out his hand: "I'm Eric, your new DM." He said smiling. Michael shook his hand. Eric had short blonde hair and a chin beard. He wore a white shirt with multiple colored triangles on it and plain jeans.

Eric sat down on a chair and looked at Michael "So, you haven't played 4th edition before?" he asked.

"No I haven't." Michael answered. "Fine, we just take you through the steps of making a character."

"Michael is playing an Eladrin Swordmage." Adrian informed Eric. "He is?" Eric asked, looking at Michael who just nodded.

"Excellent." He said. "Then let's roll some ability scores." He was almost as excited as Michael. Michael rolled the dices half a dusin times and noted the result down. 15-14-11-17-10-8 was the result.

"Nice rolls, so your primary score is Intellect, your secondary scores are Strength and Constitution." Eric said. Michael noted down the results. They used a long time making the character and talking about the campaign.

"As you may have noticed, we are using the Forgotten Realms setting. Make you background story out from that." Eric said as they were flipping through the different books. "Which magic items did you pick again?"

Michael looked at his finished character sheet and answered: "a level 7 vicious longsword, a level 3 Eladrin Chainmail, a level 1 gauntlet of ogre power and a level 6 amulet of protection."

"Don't you only get three magic items`" Adrian pointed out as he flipped through dungeon masters guide.

Eric nodded. "Yes, but you also gain a lot of gold that you can use to buy extra if you choose too." Adrian took a glance at Michael's character sheet, "Holy molly, how come you got so many hit points? You only got 1 more constitution than me and I even have a feat that grants me more." Adrian asked confused.

Michael smiled while answering: "It's because my Regional Benefit allows me to use my Intelligence for my hit points, instead of constitution. I got 20 intellect." Adrian was stunned for a second before nodding slowly. "I see. Man, you are more defender than me and you aren't even trying."

"Well, times up. I got to go now." Eric said after looking at his watch. "Sure, see you Saturday." Adrian said as he followed Eric to the door. "Michael, if you make a background story, just email it to me. I wrote it on the paper." Eric said before closing the door. And true, he had written his email on the edge of Michael's character sheet.

They began to slowly put some of the books back. "You can borrow that one." Adrian said as Michael was about to place a book on the shelf. "It can help you with your background." Michael nodded and put the book in his bag.

"I should get going as well." Michael said as he looked at the clock, 10 pm. Adrian nodded and closed the door afterwards. Being alone in his apartment, he noticed that they had forgotten to place his Players Handbook on the shelf. It lied open on the table. His eyes quickly looked over the page, suddenly a specific sentence caught his eye. "This can easy become a very interesting session." He mumbled as he closed the book.


	2. Chapter 2

He locked himself into his dorm. It was surprisingly silent. There was no extra pair of shoes, meaning that Marcus' girlfriend wasn't staying for the night. It was probably for the better. He could hear a low snoring

'I guess Marcus went to bed early.' Michael thought as he entered the bathroom to make himself ready for bed.

As he was trying to sleep, he couldn't help but doing a very rough draft of his character background in his head.

'Soveliss, Eladrin Swordmage of Ganathwood.' He couldn't help but smile. 'Watch out Fearûn, I'm coming.' He slept like a child before Christmas.

"Someone sure is happy." Marcus said, during their lunch hour. Michael sighed; it was true that he was excited for Saturday. It was also try he was reading a new book. But that didn't explain how Marcus knew.

"How is it obvious?" Michael asked. He didn't think he was that obvious.

"You are kidding, right?" Marcus asked with a lifted eyebrow, "you have been walking around with a minor smirk all day." Michael suddenly noticed himself.

"Seems I have" Michael mumbled as they got ready for their next math class.

The class was boring as usual. Their teacher had given them an assignment they could work on, it had to be done until their next math hour. Michael sad, not only with the assignment in front of him, but also the blank page that later would become the backstory of Soveliss. He was only doing a half-hearted try on the math, not that he required much more.

_He was born a slave, and raised by others alike_

Another calculation

_He had always had a close connection with arcana powers_

Another diagram

_He was freed from slavery doing a riot, and sought refuge in the nearby Ganathwood_

Another statistic

_ He was taken in by an old man, another escapee_

Another equation

_ He too, was an eladrin. His name was Ganna_

Another geometric figure

_ Ganna quickly noticed Soveliss' close connection with the arcana powers_

Another coordinate system

_ He also noticed the Soveliss had a natural talent with the swords_

Another, or not. The assignment was done.

_ As a former Swordmage, he knew that Soveliss could become a powerful one_

Michael leaned back. He had finished the assignment and at the same time he had made a rough draft of his character background, and he still got 5 minutes to go. He sighed. He was out of background story ideas. 'Well, it was just a _rough_ draft.'

"What did you write doing math?" Marcus asked, while they were heading home. "The background story of my DnD character." Michael replied, shortly after crossing the road.

"Where are you going?" Marcus shouted. "The library! I'm looking for DnD related books." Michael shouted back. Even from across the road, he could hear Marcus sigh.

"Maybe they don't have it." Marcus mumbled as he checked his seventh bookshelf. However, on this shelf he did find something; a few novels from the world of Toril, the world of Forgotten Realms. He decided to borrow one of them. He also went to the local RPG-shop, hoping they would have a book or two.

"What 'cha looking for?" The store owner asked as he noticed Michael looking around the store.

"Books for playing DnD 4th edition, got any?" Michael asked. The shop owner thought for a moment stroking his goatee.

"I may have some in the back, wait here for a sec." He finally said as he left down some spiral stairs.

"I found three ye can get." The owner said as he returned. He placed three books on the counter, an Arcana Power Source guide, a Forgotten Realms Players guide, and Players Handbook martial, divine and arcane heroes.

"I take them all, then I can return the book to Adrian" Michael said, mumbling the latter part. He paid and left.

"Did you get some books?" Marcus asked as Michael entered their dorm room.

"I did, can you make some coffee?" Michael replied, letting the books 'fly' to the couch. Marcus shrugged and started to boil water. Once Michael had removed his jacket and shoes, he went for the kitchen too. He prepared two mugs and some instant coffee powder. As they finished the coffee, they both sat down on the couch, Marcus quickly grapped the remote and found his series, earning a sigh from Michael.

"Don't complain, you got your books." Marcus said, smirking. He earned himself another sigh.

Never the less, Michael began to flip through one of the books he had bought; Arcana Power Source Guide. Once he had read it (or most of it) he continued to the next. At some point, Marcus turned the television of and turned on his computer. They spent some hours like this.

"I'm getting hungry." Marcus commented. Michael looked at the time. "Well, it is 7 pm. I go make some." Michael said as he left the couch.

"I don't think there's any food left." Marcus said. Michael sighed, 'I am doing this a lot today', He looked in the fridge.

"You are right about that, looks like we are eating out tonight." Michael said.

"Who's there?" The door phone asked. "It's Michael." He responded.

"Oh hey, come in." The door swung open, and Michael entered.

"I'm glad you wanted to join us." Eric smiled as he held his apartment door open. Michael could hear a few voices from the inside, one of them was Adrian. Michael hung his jacket and walked into the living room. The room was larger than Adrian's. Two couches were pushed up the wall together with a low table. In the middle of the room stood an old oak wood table, it was a beautiful table. There were 3 chairs on each side, and a single chair at one of the end. In front of that chair stood a game master screen. It had impressive hand drawn pictures on the sides towards the players; a few papers lay behind it. By the table sat a girl, judging from long black ponytail, she had her back towards him. In one of the two couches sat Adrian and another boy.

"Get comfortable, we are still waiting for one." Eric said as he clapped Michael on the shoulder and went into the kitchen.

"Michael" Adrian waved him over, Michael followed, "This is Chase" He pointed at the guy beside him, who stood up. Chase looked a little younger than Michael, he had short nut brown and a lean built. He wore a black t-shirt and a pair of light grey cotton pants.

They shook hands. "So what do you play?" Michael asked. Chase was about to speak when Eric interrupted: "You will find out in due time. Now, what do you want to drink?"

"Green Tea" The girl from the table said, "Coffee." Chase replied. "Any kind of soda." Adrian said. Michael wondered for a moment "Just soda for me too." Eric nodded.

"So: Green Tea for Kioko, Coffee for Chase, Soda for Adrian and Michael, and cappuccino for Julia once she arrives." He went back to the kitchen.

"Kioko?" Michael said looking confused at the girl with her back to it. She turned in the chair, and true enough; it was his classmate. "You play too?" She smiled and nodded. Kioko was a long black haired, held in a braided ponytail, girl. She was American, but her parents where Japanese. She was in Michael's class, though they don't talk much except for group assignments.

Suddenly the door phone rang. "Adrian, go get it." Eric shouted from the kitchen. Adrian did so, with a sigh. When he spoke with the phone is was a short distance from his ear, as you would do when someone was loud. Never the less he pressed the button and unlocked the apartment door.

Shortly after, a tall woman with long wavy red hair entered the door. As she took of her long jacket, they could see that she wore a sleeve less white shirt and jeans.

Just as she entered the living room, Eric also entered with a tray. Beside the drinks, he also had a bowl of cookies. "Hey Julia, this is our new player, Michael." Eric said while handing out the different drinks.

"So you are the Swordmage that Adrian was so excited about?" Julia asked as she bumped her shoulder against Michaels, in a friendly matter that is. As response, Michael nodded.

"Everyone, let's take seat." Eric said as he clapped his hand. Everyone, besides Michael, sat and put their character sheets, power cards and books onto the table. Eric sat at the edge, at his left he had Julia, Kioko and Chase. On his right was an empty seat, Adrian and another empty seat. Michael picked the one between Adrian and Eric.

"As some of you remember, our heroes just returned to Telflamm after stopping a bandit group in Lyrabar. The 180 mile trip took almost 3 hole days and worn out our heroes." Eric began, with the voice of a grandfather beginning a fairytale for a child, Michael loved it.

"We ended our last session with our heroes departing from the ship, thankfully stretching their legs on the now solid ground." Eric looked each player in the eyes, "What do you do?"


End file.
